The Orlando Magic lost its first-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons in seven games. It was a winnable series for the Magic, who had a commanding lead in Game 6, but an inexplicable second-half collapse prevented Orlando from closing out the series.
However, Magic president Jeff Weltman isn’t ready to “dismantle” the roster just yet.
“That’s a gut punch,” Weltman said of the Game 6 collapse, according to ESPN. “That is going to remain with our team this summer. We know that a lot of our season will be filtered through that lens. What happened? I can point to a lot of things. I think what happened was we were up 3-1 against the No. 1 team in the East and then Franz got hurt. It altered the series.
“… When healthy, we were top five [on] defense and top 10 [on] offense. … I think we saw some of what we had hoped to see [against Detroit]. So I don’t want to tear this thing down and dismantle it because of the way it ended and certainly one half.”
That doesn’t mean there’ll be no change coming to the franchise.The franchise announced on Monday that it was parting ways with head coach Jamahl Mosley.
“It just seems like it is time for a new perspective,” Weltman said. “Maybe a fresh voice and for all of us to get a different vantage point on what is going on with our team.”
Weltman believes in the current core, but knows it’ll have to stay healthy in order to really put everything together.
“Had we stayed healthy, I’d like to imagine where we would have gone in this series and beyond,” he said. “I think when you build a team for the playoffs, you try to construct a roster that has the attributes that we have. It’s not easy to get the positional versatility, guys that can elevate their games when it matters the most. The physicality, a lot of the way that we are built is designed to be successful in the playoffs.
“Unfortunately we didn’t see a lot of that. But when healthy, we got a pretty good look at that. I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t have competed against anyone else in the East if we could compete against the No. 1 team like that.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.